tEAm news #74 | 24.2.22
“What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it.”
To each of you, thank you for your friendship!
Dates
MOMENT OF PRAYER - Mondays 9-9:15: a moment to pause and pray for our work & team. All welcome!
Link here (Meeting ID: 708 452 7633 Passcode: empathy)Desperate Journey (DJ): 4th March we will run a 2-Room version with a small team with Trevor and Vanya, and aim to develop it to a 2-tent simulation that can be staged in the near future. We hope to have an opportunity to have a dry run at St Johns Church (beginning of April) and is making a tentative enquiry for use of space.
March - Women’s Day campaign (Cam, Barbra, Krishna are working on) with The Empathy Store
1st March (12 - 2pm) - Pancake day team get together (Tunbridge Wells)
Mar 2022: TPT Sevenoaks (TBC)
St Johns Primary School: Empathy Exercises (TBC)
Refugee Week (c20-24th June) - Handicrafts campaign using our Friendship Bracelets
27th June: TPT, Wally Hall School - Sevenoaks - CONFIRMED (Set up 26th and possibility of running Empathy Exercises on 28th)
29th June: Canford School, TPT (TBC)
30th June: Sevenoaks School (1) with Strange Face - Empathy Exercises (TBC)
30th June - 2nd July: Sevenoaks School (2) Desperate Journeys (new version) - 30th - Year 8s, 1st - Community Primary Schools, 2nd Parents for Founder’s Day (TBC)
Sept 2022: TPT: Activate Learning (TBC)
Michaelmas Term: Sevenoaks School, TPT for Year 8s (TBC)
Peace Day (around 21st Sept) Handicrafts campaign
Climate Justice Week (Nov, TBC)
1st March 12-2pm
Pancake Day
Team Gathering!
Come and enjoy pancake & friendship! @EA Office
Covid Precautions for the EA Office Pancake get together
All government restrictions relating to Covid have been lifted. However we need to be aware that the virus is still in circulation. If you have Covid symptoms or a member of your household has tested positive please do not attend. Also if you are vulnerable and like to avoid large groups of people please think carefully before attending. We would love to see you all but not at the risk of serious illness.
Richard Watts, EA Management
Spreading the love: a summary of our
Valentine’s Campaign
SALES: 38 (Target 100)
PRODUCTS SOLD: £363 (121)
TOP PRODUCT: Red Soapstone Kibera! (35)
NEXT BEST: Red Harare Heart (24)
Thank you!
A precious ‘more than just a campaign’ moment
Today we dropped a Valentine’s Your Heart Matters gifts round to a local buyer. It was an EA delivery that we did in-person as one of our team was going past their home. We’re so glad we did.
The buyer phoned us up this evening to say:
“I’m fostering children at the moment and wanted to give these hearts to my foster kids to let them know they are loved.
I’ve had a really hard week as they are from Zimbabwe (with a black father and white mother) and full of brokenness. They came here and were put into foster care. There’s a lot of anger and hurt in them and they are desperate to go back to Zimbabwe. I’ve been struggling to find ways to breakthrough … and with love.
It’s been my prayer all week. It’s been so tiring. It’s been so heartbreaking and I’ve prayed so hard to find some way to breakthrough as they miss home so very, very much.
When these hearts came through I burst into tears to see they were from Zimbabwe (I didn’t clock this) and also made by kids separated from their families.
These will be so powerful when I give them to my kids and from their country, that they yearn for, to find a way back to them. Thank you for allowing me show love to them in this way. Thank you so very much.
She cried and shared these words and then said: “please don’t give up… what you are doing is important for broken lives. Even if all you have sold are these three hearts… it was worth it.”
Our next campaign: A month of celebrating Women this March
Over March we’re going to focus on women, gender equality & empowerment, Sustainable Development Goal no 5 (aka SDG5) but most importantly celebrating women. Celebrating courage, bravery, facing adversity.
Cam, Barbra, Krishna & Ben are working away at a newer campaign through our social channels and The Empathy Store. It’s still in development, but watch this space!
Other Updates
Stock take: Fuzzy has been helping with an annual stocktake update this week, and since Covid restriction is relaxed, she will be able to come on a weekly based time in book-keeping.
Wedding dresses: Catherine Goodier is volunteering to help in finishing the documentary of the donated wedding dresses to EA, and will help to initiate a project to sell the dresses and raise fund for EA with these lovely gifts.
Students getting in touch. We’ve had some enquiries from Bennett Memorial School and Tunbridge Wells Boys Grammar School for placements for DofE and Work Experience. We’ve said yes to two D of E students (TWBG) who can come in weekly for an hour after school to the office starting next week.
Volunteers needed(!) to help us stage future programmes for TPTs/DJs and Empathy Exercises. We’re starting to take bookings (yay!) and we’ll need a much greater amount of people than we were used to as we’d like to to start running even more programmes (both in parallel and around the country). If you know anyone interested, please point them our way as we would love to start training and preparing people. We really need help in this area and we’d like to get much smarter about using volunteers around the opportunities ahead.
OTHER NEWS
Empathy Action invites you to an Experimental Refugee Workshop on 6th March Sunday 4-5:30 pm at TWCF Church (South Site), see map.
This immersive and interactive drama workshop (written and presented by Vanya Chung) aims to engage the participants by playing a role in a displacement journey that may occur to a refugee. The improvising elements show how vulnerable they are in destiny and how precious a graceful action is taken to reach their destination.
Find out more and book your seat here!
It’s FREE but we’ll need to know numbers in advance! (Please let us know if you are coming at the earliest , before 28th Feb would be perfect!).
Any questions, please contact Vanya.
We all need someone to walk with us a mile or two.